Notes on a Wisconsin Pioneer

NOTES ON A WISCONSIN PIONEER
AXEL FRIMAN
During the summer of 1838 a young lad, Herman Friman
[later Freeman], not yet ten years old, accompanied his
father and four other brothers1 to America, to become the
first Swedes to settle in Wisconsin. There the father and the
five sons took a claim and set about the task of cultivating
the prairie.
The father, a retired Swedish regimental clerk, found it
necessary, however, to return to his home land and there­fore
left for Sweden the following summer, taking with him
his son Herman, who was in ill health, in order to find med­ical
care for him.2
Herman regained his health and after three years in Swe­den
it appears from correspondence in the author's pos­session
that young Herman became anxious to rejoin his
brothers in Wisconsin and they in turn expected him to
come back. Not only were they eager to see him in their
midst again, but they also expected him to bring with him a
clothes chest worth more than fifty dollars, filled with items,
unprocurable in the Wisconsin wilderness. Thus Herman
Friman, once more departed from the port of Göteborg,
this time aboard an American ship SAMOS on July 1, 1842.
Since the young boy was barely thirteen years old, the fa­ther
had arranged that a fellow emigrant, Nils Henrik Mel­lander
from Eksjö in Småland, 24 years old, be asked to
keep an eye on the boy.
The SAMOS made a record crossing, arriving in Boston
August 16 of that year.3 Young Herman Freeman was now
»Carl Johan [John], born 1821; Jan Wilhelm [William], born 1823; Adolf
[Adolph], born 1826; Otto, born 1831, arrived in New York together with
Herman and the father, Carl Friman, on July 9, 1838 aboard the Swedish
brig ROSEN from Göteborg. Port of New York Ship Arrivals 1820-1897,
National Archives.
2 Carl Friman in Skara Tidning Oct. 6, 1842.
8 Ibid, Oct. 13, 1842.
5
scheduled to leave for the West with the chest, but as the
months went by it became more and more evident that
young Freeman was lost without a trace. The young men
in Wisconsin, as well as the father in Sweden, became
alarmed and suspicions against Nils Henrik Melander be­gan
to be heard. Carl Friman, writing to the Swedish press,
accused young Melander of having murdered Herman, while
Melander's father, a retired sergeant major by the name of
J. C. Melander in Eksjö, answered the charge with sorrow
and righteous indignation.4
The whole episode was thus given "a halo of romance,
that made them in a real sense news letters from the great,
rich, mighty and wonderful land out there in the West."5
Fortunately the "tragedy of brother Herman" turned out
to have a happy ending, but not before a number of people
had been involved in trying to find out what had happened
to the young lad from Sweden and his valuable chest.8
Actually the chest arrived in Wheatland, Wis. long before
brother Herman showed up, having been forwarded by the
Boston owner of the ship SAMOS. It was not until the end
of December of 1843 that the parents of Herman received
a letter directly from their sons, dated Wheatland, Wis.,
Sept, 23, 1843, stating that "brother Herman, whom we con­sidered
dead, has arrived." Herman had walked south from
Boston to Providence, R. I., and from there to New York
and thence to Albany, N. Y., where he stayed over winter,
after which he continued in April of 1843 westward to his
brothers in Wisconsin, where he was reunited with them on
July 2.
Two months earlier, however, the parents and those
reached by the Swedish press had learned via the Göteborgs
Handels- och Sjöfartstidning that Herman had finally
reached Wisconsin. The travelling companion, Nils Henrik
Melander, was completely freed of any responsibility for the
* J. C. Melander In Skara Tidning July 13, 1843.
5 George M. Stephenson, Letters Relating to Gustaf Unonius and the Early
Swedish Settlers in Wisconsin, Vol. VII of Augustana Historical Society
Publications, p. 15.
6 Carl Friman in Skara Tidning May 18, 1843.
8
disappearance, and the editor was somewhat surprised and
shocked by the fact that young Herman during his wander­ings
had assumed the name of Stroom (or Ström), which
he says "is not a very good recommendation for such a
young man as Friman."7
At the same time, the father, now at ease after his anxi­ety
of the past year, and proud of his son's adventures,
writes for his home town newspaper the following:
"In truth a brave 14-year old lad, who in a strange
country, unfamiliar with the customs and the language,
despite many obstacles and difficulties during his long
wanderings and lacking the elementary things of life to
supply his needs, has been able to negotiate the long dis­tance
from Boston to his brothers in Wisconsin."8
The oldest brother, John, now 22 years old, who during
the past five years had shouldered the responsibilities of the
little Swedish settlement in Wisconsin, reported that Her­man
"seems to be slow and stubborn" but adds, "he will
doubtlessly learn."
Herman did not stay with his brothers longer than Oct.
1, 1843, when he left them, without saying anything of his
plans. In another letter from John Freeman to his father,
dated Wheatland, Nov. 12, 1846, he makes the following
evaluation of the young brother:
"He was stiffnecked and selfish and did not wish to do
that which he was told to do but always countered by
saying that he could manage better by himself and did
not wish to have any master."
According to an oral tradition which the author heard
from two different sources during his visit to America in
1960,9 the reason for Herman's sudden departure from his
brothers' home in Wisconsin was the accidental powder ex­plosion
caused by Herman's careless cleaning of his gun,
' Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidning Oct. 21, 1843; Stephenson, Letters Re­lating
to Gustaf Unonius, p. 109.
8 Carl Friman in Skara Tidning Nov. 2, 1843.
°Axel Friman, On the Trail of Early Wisconsin Swedes in the Swedish Pi­oneer
Historical Quarterly, Vol. XII, pp. 10-16.
7
which devastated the primitive home and destroyed much
of the few earthly possessions of the brothers.
In the meanwhile Herman neglected to communicate with
either his parents or his brothers in Wisconsin, until 1851,
when he visited his brother John in Wheatland and then
only after prodding by him, sent a letter to his father in
Sweden, dated Lyons, Wis., July 18, 1851, in which he says:
"Since i left home have workt four years at the Bakers
trade and afterward enlisted in the Mexican War and have
160 Acre of land and i think I will gett 160 More sieens
[since] my discharge By an act of Congress."
It would seem therefore, that after having left the Free­man
settlement in Wheatland in October, 1843, he spent
four years as a baker somewhere and then in 1847 enlisted
for service in the War with Mexico. In a letter which Wil­liam
Freeman sent to his father in Sweden, dated Genoa,
Wis., May 10, 1852, he refers to brother Herman having
been through the Mexican War, that he had visited Genoa
and that he had settled in Galena, 111.10
Herman's later life is not too well known. It is known
that he settled in Kentucky in 1853, that he spent the next
half century there, before moving to Pasadena, Calif., where
he died in 1913 at the age of 84. He lies buried in Altadena
together with his brothers William and Otto. Thus Herman
Freeman, after many decades of separation from his broth­ers,
found himself reunited with two of them in a California
cemetery.
10The official U. S. Army records verify that a young Swede, by the name of
Harman Strome, born in Lidköping in 1828, and by trade a baker, enlisted
in Co. B of the Fourth U. S. Artillery Regiment in Boston, Mass., on March
5, 1847, for the War with Mexico and saw service both at Buena Vista and
Walnut Springs, near Monterrey, Mexico, until Sept. 1, 1848, when he was
discharged in New Orleans as a private. In a comparison of Herman Free­man's
known signature from his letters and that of Harman Strome, who
signed the enlistment papers, it is certain that the two persons are identical.
U. S. A r m y Enlistment records, National Archives.
8

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NOTES ON A WISCONSIN PIONEER
AXEL FRIMAN
During the summer of 1838 a young lad, Herman Friman
[later Freeman], not yet ten years old, accompanied his
father and four other brothers1 to America, to become the
first Swedes to settle in Wisconsin. There the father and the
five sons took a claim and set about the task of cultivating
the prairie.
The father, a retired Swedish regimental clerk, found it
necessary, however, to return to his home land and there­fore
left for Sweden the following summer, taking with him
his son Herman, who was in ill health, in order to find med­ical
care for him.2
Herman regained his health and after three years in Swe­den
it appears from correspondence in the author's pos­session
that young Herman became anxious to rejoin his
brothers in Wisconsin and they in turn expected him to
come back. Not only were they eager to see him in their
midst again, but they also expected him to bring with him a
clothes chest worth more than fifty dollars, filled with items,
unprocurable in the Wisconsin wilderness. Thus Herman
Friman, once more departed from the port of Göteborg,
this time aboard an American ship SAMOS on July 1, 1842.
Since the young boy was barely thirteen years old, the fa­ther
had arranged that a fellow emigrant, Nils Henrik Mel­lander
from Eksjö in Småland, 24 years old, be asked to
keep an eye on the boy.
The SAMOS made a record crossing, arriving in Boston
August 16 of that year.3 Young Herman Freeman was now
»Carl Johan [John], born 1821; Jan Wilhelm [William], born 1823; Adolf
[Adolph], born 1826; Otto, born 1831, arrived in New York together with
Herman and the father, Carl Friman, on July 9, 1838 aboard the Swedish
brig ROSEN from Göteborg. Port of New York Ship Arrivals 1820-1897,
National Archives.
2 Carl Friman in Skara Tidning Oct. 6, 1842.
8 Ibid, Oct. 13, 1842.
5
scheduled to leave for the West with the chest, but as the
months went by it became more and more evident that
young Freeman was lost without a trace. The young men
in Wisconsin, as well as the father in Sweden, became
alarmed and suspicions against Nils Henrik Melander be­gan
to be heard. Carl Friman, writing to the Swedish press,
accused young Melander of having murdered Herman, while
Melander's father, a retired sergeant major by the name of
J. C. Melander in Eksjö, answered the charge with sorrow
and righteous indignation.4
The whole episode was thus given "a halo of romance,
that made them in a real sense news letters from the great,
rich, mighty and wonderful land out there in the West."5
Fortunately the "tragedy of brother Herman" turned out
to have a happy ending, but not before a number of people
had been involved in trying to find out what had happened
to the young lad from Sweden and his valuable chest.8
Actually the chest arrived in Wheatland, Wis. long before
brother Herman showed up, having been forwarded by the
Boston owner of the ship SAMOS. It was not until the end
of December of 1843 that the parents of Herman received
a letter directly from their sons, dated Wheatland, Wis.,
Sept, 23, 1843, stating that "brother Herman, whom we con­sidered
dead, has arrived." Herman had walked south from
Boston to Providence, R. I., and from there to New York
and thence to Albany, N. Y., where he stayed over winter,
after which he continued in April of 1843 westward to his
brothers in Wisconsin, where he was reunited with them on
July 2.
Two months earlier, however, the parents and those
reached by the Swedish press had learned via the Göteborgs
Handels- och Sjöfartstidning that Herman had finally
reached Wisconsin. The travelling companion, Nils Henrik
Melander, was completely freed of any responsibility for the
* J. C. Melander In Skara Tidning July 13, 1843.
5 George M. Stephenson, Letters Relating to Gustaf Unonius and the Early
Swedish Settlers in Wisconsin, Vol. VII of Augustana Historical Society
Publications, p. 15.
6 Carl Friman in Skara Tidning May 18, 1843.
8
disappearance, and the editor was somewhat surprised and
shocked by the fact that young Herman during his wander­ings
had assumed the name of Stroom (or Ström), which
he says "is not a very good recommendation for such a
young man as Friman."7
At the same time, the father, now at ease after his anxi­ety
of the past year, and proud of his son's adventures,
writes for his home town newspaper the following:
"In truth a brave 14-year old lad, who in a strange
country, unfamiliar with the customs and the language,
despite many obstacles and difficulties during his long
wanderings and lacking the elementary things of life to
supply his needs, has been able to negotiate the long dis­tance
from Boston to his brothers in Wisconsin."8
The oldest brother, John, now 22 years old, who during
the past five years had shouldered the responsibilities of the
little Swedish settlement in Wisconsin, reported that Her­man
"seems to be slow and stubborn" but adds, "he will
doubtlessly learn."
Herman did not stay with his brothers longer than Oct.
1, 1843, when he left them, without saying anything of his
plans. In another letter from John Freeman to his father,
dated Wheatland, Nov. 12, 1846, he makes the following
evaluation of the young brother:
"He was stiffnecked and selfish and did not wish to do
that which he was told to do but always countered by
saying that he could manage better by himself and did
not wish to have any master."
According to an oral tradition which the author heard
from two different sources during his visit to America in
1960,9 the reason for Herman's sudden departure from his
brothers' home in Wisconsin was the accidental powder ex­plosion
caused by Herman's careless cleaning of his gun,
' Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidning Oct. 21, 1843; Stephenson, Letters Re­lating
to Gustaf Unonius, p. 109.
8 Carl Friman in Skara Tidning Nov. 2, 1843.
°Axel Friman, On the Trail of Early Wisconsin Swedes in the Swedish Pi­oneer
Historical Quarterly, Vol. XII, pp. 10-16.
7
which devastated the primitive home and destroyed much
of the few earthly possessions of the brothers.
In the meanwhile Herman neglected to communicate with
either his parents or his brothers in Wisconsin, until 1851,
when he visited his brother John in Wheatland and then
only after prodding by him, sent a letter to his father in
Sweden, dated Lyons, Wis., July 18, 1851, in which he says:
"Since i left home have workt four years at the Bakers
trade and afterward enlisted in the Mexican War and have
160 Acre of land and i think I will gett 160 More sieens
[since] my discharge By an act of Congress."
It would seem therefore, that after having left the Free­man
settlement in Wheatland in October, 1843, he spent
four years as a baker somewhere and then in 1847 enlisted
for service in the War with Mexico. In a letter which Wil­liam
Freeman sent to his father in Sweden, dated Genoa,
Wis., May 10, 1852, he refers to brother Herman having
been through the Mexican War, that he had visited Genoa
and that he had settled in Galena, 111.10
Herman's later life is not too well known. It is known
that he settled in Kentucky in 1853, that he spent the next
half century there, before moving to Pasadena, Calif., where
he died in 1913 at the age of 84. He lies buried in Altadena
together with his brothers William and Otto. Thus Herman
Freeman, after many decades of separation from his broth­ers,
found himself reunited with two of them in a California
cemetery.
10The official U. S. Army records verify that a young Swede, by the name of
Harman Strome, born in Lidköping in 1828, and by trade a baker, enlisted
in Co. B of the Fourth U. S. Artillery Regiment in Boston, Mass., on March
5, 1847, for the War with Mexico and saw service both at Buena Vista and
Walnut Springs, near Monterrey, Mexico, until Sept. 1, 1848, when he was
discharged in New Orleans as a private. In a comparison of Herman Free­man's
known signature from his letters and that of Harman Strome, who
signed the enlistment papers, it is certain that the two persons are identical.
U. S. A r m y Enlistment records, National Archives.
8